Feb. 14, 2014
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Fourteen top five finishes, including five-first place performances, highlighted the Georgia Tech track and field team’s first day of competition Friday at the Cupid Classic held at the Birmingham CrossPlex. Morgan Jackson, Broderick Snoddy, Spencer Allen and Julienne McKee won their individual events.
Jackson won the mile out of 50 runners in a personal-best time of 4:51.69, taking almost five second off her previous PR. Maria Boff took eighth in a personal-best time of 5:08.37.
Snoddy placed third in the 60-meter preliminaries with a time of 6.82. He finished second in the finals with a mark of 6.72. Snoddy won the 200 meters later in the day with a time of 21.23.
Allen took third in the 60-meter hurdle “B” preliminaries 8.12. He improved on his preliminary time to win the final round with a time of 8.09.
Three Yellow Jackets finished in the top 10 in the women’s long jump, led by McKee who won the event with a leap of 6.06m (19-10.75). Donjhae Jones took third (5.83m; 19-01.50) and Carissa Tipler finished seventh (5.51m; 18-01.00).
McKee also won the triple jump 12.55m (41-02.75).
The Jackets reaped success in the distance events. Kelly Meyer crossed the line in third in the 3,000 meters with a PR time 10:02.69, and Laura Nelson finished third in the 5,000 with a personal-record time of 18:18.19 (previous was 18:32.96) and Elizabeth Lacksen took fourth with a career-best time of18:53.68; her previous PR was 19:07.55 Elena Hubbard finished seventh in the same event (19:13.54).
On the men’s side, Chance Eldredge took second in the men’s 5,000 meters with a time of 15:42.32 and Austin Veith followed in third (15:59.04). Chris Burnett took fifth in the 800 meters (1:54.55).
In the field events, Nikita Kirillov took eighth in the pole vault with a height of 4.90m (16-00.75) and Samantha Becker took eighth on the women’s side with a vault of 3.80m (12-05.50).
Alex Braxton finished seventh and Julia Frederick took 10th in the high jump with heights of 1.65m, a personal best, (5-05.00) and 1.60m (5-03.00), respectively.
A small group of Jackets competed today at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash. Katie Townsend finished the 5,000 meters at the Husky Classic with a time of 17:12.97. Patrick Barron ran in the men’s 5,000 meters and finished with a time of 14:43.15.
